The initial estimate of the cost of the separation fence is NIS 7.5 billion, but this sum does not include the cost of installing terminals, or the traffic arrangements in the territories, as a result of the expected limitations, nor does it include the regular cost of maintaining the fence, estimated at NIS 160,000 per km.
The Ministry of Defense budget department representative gave the Knesset Economics Committee this estimate today, in a special debate initiated by committee chairman MK Shalom Simhon (Labor), following reports that the Ministry of Finance was planning a special tax to financing the cost of erecting the fence.
The Ministry of Defense predicts that the fence will be completed within two years, since only NIS 3 billion per year can be spared to pay for it.
The Ministry of Defense representative noted that the final length of the fence, including the government’s recent changes, would be 720 km, excluding the eastern fence. He added that the cost would be NIS 10 million per km.
At the end of the discussion, Simhon estimated that the fence, including the east and west fences, the terminals, and maintenance would amount to NIS 15 billion, which Israel would have trouble meeting. He announced that the committee would hold another discussion on the issue, after sharply rejecting the Ministry of Finance’s plan to levy a special tax to pay for the fence.
”The fence is proving a bottomless pit, as a result of the government’s planning failure,” Simhon said. “Someone in the Ministry of Finance, however, mistakenly believes that citizens are cows that can be endlessly milked.”
Published by Globes [online] -l www.globes.co.il - on October 29, 2003